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Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

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Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#141

Post by namdnay »

TylerE wrote: post #63
randomstring wrote: post #32

Having done my BS in Match and CS at a school with a parallel Actuarial program, I got a good look at what being an actuary is about. If you're good at math, and really good at standardized math exams you can advance through the various levels and work your way up the pay-scale ladder. I think this really appeals to people who are good at math, but maybe don't want to go into academia. That said of all the actuaries…

Isn't it sort of a truism that high-paying jobs are not fun? Know who gets paid a lot (relative to education)? Sanitation workers. You know who doesn't? Pilots

I would add a third dimension to that chart: probability of success. I'm sure being a Hollywood actor or a rockstar are both fun and well-paying, but the chance of success is tiny

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#142

Post by 50 »

roel_v wrote: post #135
50 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's pretty cool! Manual labor, personally, is appealing after a week of desk work in front of a computer - the sun, the frequent breeze, sweating, etc. It's one of the reasons I added philosophy as another major I'm pursing along with computer science - makes think about something other than computers and it gets me off the computer, even if it's for a tad bit.

"Manual labor, personally, is appealing after a week of desk work in front of a computer" "It's one of the reasons I added philosophy as another major" Couldn't help but LOL at that juxtaposition, sorry :)

No worries! It's a foolish mistake. I often don't know what I'm saying.

I suppose what I was trying to say is that by manual labor, I like being outside, and by adding a philosophy major, I get to do work that doesn't always require using the computer so I can do work under a tree and I get to think about something else. If I didn't add a philosophy major, I would just be inside and engulfed in front of the computer, thinking about computers. If any of that makes any sense and has any correlation to each other whatsoever.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#143

Post by roel_v »

50 wrote: post #142
roel_v wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Manual labor, personally, is appealing after a week of desk work in front of a computer" "It's one of the reasons I added philosophy as another major" Couldn't help but LOL at that juxtaposition, sorry :)

No worries! It's a foolish mistake. I often don't know what I'm saying. I suppose what I was trying to say is that by manual labor, I like being outside, and by adding a philosophy major, I get to do work that doesn't always require using the computer so I can do work under a tree and I get to think about something else. If I didn't add a philosophy major, I would just be inside and engulfed in front of the computer,…

Yes, I even understood the feeling you were conveying the first time around, because I think every last one of us reading this has it - but it also felt so familiar to read your 'solution' to the dilemma. 'Hmm I hate sitting down behind a computer all day, I'd love to do something physical, hey you know what - I'll just start doing that one thing besides programming that requires no physical effort at all!' (that's what it reads like, I know it's not actually like that). Not mocking you, it's funny because it's so relatable :)

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#144

Post by random_kris »

Moodles wrote: post #137
p33p wrote: post #57

As an actuary, I can not recommend it to anyone with a technical background. I have degrees in mathematics and actuarial science, and I consider my actuarial science degree completely worthless. A mathematics and/or computer science degree will teach you more in terms of how to think than anyone with an actuarial science degree. If you’d like to take a major where your professors literally teach to the exam/test, the…

I started an actuarial science degree too and this is exactly my experience. But I then ditched it and took a different path. It was quite a risk at the time (not an actuary joke, oh my god just no). I was 18 and dumb and knew I was good at mathematics and that it was a good career. But it was actually quite dull and, like you say, very robotic. So I was able to switch degrees to pure math and then computer science a…

what do you do in crypto? As a programmer I find bitcoin really fascinanting and was thinking about learning the codebase and trying to contribute something to community but I find it really hard to do so...

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#145

Post by m00n »

Interesting to see, how the usually data driven crowd on this site largely dismisses a data point and the usual talking points are reversed:

40h work-weeks that pay great -> Must be boring.

Economics study is done by economists -> Probably skewed.

How dare these people * equating carreer value with expected profits * using a weighted average to come up with a number * expect candidates to pass hard stats tests before constructing insurance products

Programming in JS web frameworks is clearly superior to any work done using Excel and be it supplying the nation with health coverage. /s

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#146

Post by m00n »

alouisos wrote: post #60

Beware, actuarial science will be replaced by AI and the incentives of insurance is high to replace this workforce with AI. Believe me, I have been doing an AI startup in exactly this space

May I ask who will lose his professional credentials, when your AI does not follow established practises and insurance coverage goes belly-up?

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#147

Post by venatiodecorus »

50 wrote: post #106
fnayr wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotally, I just came back from New Zealand and was staying at a farm house rented out on Airbnb. The owner was previously an actuary in Sydney, and hated his job so switched mid career to farmer. Pretty large change.

That's pretty cool! Manual labor, personally, is appealing after a week of desk work in front of a computer - the sun, the frequent breeze, sweating, etc. It's one of the reasons I added philosophy as another major I'm pursing along with computer science - makes think about something other than computers and it gets me off the computer, even if it's for a tad bit.

recently i lost my developer job and took a temp position in a warehouse after difficulty finding a new dev position. i think it is easy to romanticize manual labor when you're sitting at a desk. when you actually have to do it to survive, there really is nothing romantic about it. not fun!

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#149

Post by rezeroed »

Nursie wrote: post #126
mrep wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> If you're good at math, and really good at standardized math exams you can advance through the various levels and work your way up the pay-scale ladder > I was able to more than double my starting salary (ending at around 135k with bonus) 3 years out of school. Have you considered software engineering because current pay starts at around 150k in big tech and I'm now making 215k 2.5 years out of college? I say this…

> Have you considered software engineering because current pay starts at around 150k in big tech and I'm now making 215k This is highly area dependent though, surely? In the UK, outside of London, those figures would likely be $50k and $60k

Yeah, I work in Gherkin area of London, many insurance companies there. The actuarial types I overhear at the coffee-shops are earning around 3x my software dev salary.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#150

Post by DavidHm »

Bootvis wrote: post #123

I’m an actuary (not of the qualified variety) and don’t share the observations made in most of the comments here: - I get to spend most of the time in R working on cash flow modeling; - We get to use a lot of data which makes for interesting challenges; - I get a say in how we solve problems IT wise; - We need to understand the business to do our own modeling correctly; - Pay isn’t that great. AMA P.S. I’m in Europe

I suspect this is very much dependent on the country.

My bachelor was in stats & actuarial sciences (though I never worked in the field), and in my country there's a big shortage of qualified actuaries. So the average salaries are pretty high and it's a safe and stable work (albeit dreadfully boring, which is why I never went into the field)

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